My friend Alex Ferrari is a Film Director in LA. He’s making a movie called This is Meg. Alex and I went to high school together in South Florida and I ran into him again in 2004. I was a freelance video editor and he was running his own post production company as well as preparing to make his first short film Broken. Then life got in the way and I lost track of him. Then Facebook happened and I found him on Facebook in 2010. I think I found him because we share a filmmaking friend in South Florida. Over the years I’ve seen him share some links to his short films, post some pics of him working on set, real professional work – work I wished I was doing. In 2010 I made my first short and in 2012 made my second. I noticed in Alex’s latest production, which was an animation Red Princess Blues: Genesis. This starred the wonderful character actor Lance Henriksen , which I thought was very impressive! That’s the dude from Aliens!
Then the guy does a complete 180 and starts hocking…Olive Oil??? What? I see pics of him behind these huge camera rigs, sitting on cranes and directing these impressive sets…but now he’s branching out into designer EVOO? You can’t write this stuff! So I continued following him. I even considered buying some of the Olive Oil because I figured it had to be good, everything this guy touches is a success.
Case in point: Indie Film Hustle. I’ve seen online courses for video production. I’ve seen ‘No Film School’ videos which show how to do things for cheap or whatever, but they never stood out as very good. Then I see Alex’s new venture, which caters exactly to people like me: wanna-be filmmakers. I don’t mean that in a bad way either, I really ‘wanna-be’ a filmmaker! Well, Alex put this site together – then started a podcast and began interviewing big names in the biz. Again, another home run. So I asked him if he would be on the radio show in Rochester to talk about what he’s up to. Here is the entire interview in Podcast form for your listening pleasure.
So, I noticed that a mutual friend, whom I respect, commented on this story. I noticed that he was being attacked for implying something he didn’t imply with words he didn’t use. The person attacking my friend was an African American woman. She had an agenda. My friend was commenting that not all cops are ‘D’ students – which is what the original poster stated when he shared this video. Here – you read them for yourself:
If you see, he replies…”typical…” As in, typically on Facebook, people who have the opposing position are often called names or vilified. Why? Because they have an opposing view. But what did she imply?
My friend legitimately thought she was messing with him. She immediately brings race into it. Now, I will admit that my comments are not seen, because I blocked her when she went bat-shit crazy on me, threatening to “expose” my racism to the world and get me blacklisted from radioland.
I jump In, to Help
I first commented, “What planet is she on?” (I will freely admit that I was being confrontational with that comment) But, it gets nasty from there. The worst I ever commented what that her anger doesn’t do anyone any good. Her response was to call me out for automatically assuming she was an angry black woman. So, there was no winning this one. She then checked out my page, discovering I worked for a radio station – which then led her to the wonderful conclusion that I am a public figure and should NEVER comment on such business.
A few lines later, I even apologized for making any assumptions. I figured, my pride isn’t all that important and if I take the high road she will do the same, it has worked before. NOPE. She used that opportunity to call me out for my weakness. That’s when she deiced that I should pay with my job: (I add it again, so you don’t have to scroll).
What is my point? I see arguments all over social media about #BlackLivesMatter #AllLivesMatter #BlueLivesMatter and other associated hashtags. We all know there are bad apples on both sides, but neither side will admit it. Maybe we need to use our brains for something other than creating witty memes. #UseYourGreyMatter
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Then the guy does a complete 180 and starts hocking…Olive Oil??? What? I see pics of him behind these huge camera rigs, sitting on cranes and directing these impressive sets…but now he’s branching out into designer EVOO? You can’t write this stuff! So I continued following him. I even considered buying some of the Olive Oil because I figured it had to be good, everything this guy touches is a success.
This is the meaty part of a “conversation” I was trying to have with a woman who needed to inject race into a story that had nothing to do with race. Here is the original story, which was shared on a friend’s Facebook page: 
